Jason Dominy of Dilworth Coffee interviews Charlie Lowell of the Grammy Award winning band, Jars of Clay about his long love for coffee and espresso, with some discussion about the band's charitable efforts in Africa.

I saw them in concert way back when they were brand new at Bell Shoals Baptist Church (Brandon, FL). I took two of my cousins (kids at the time) to it. I remember chatting with the lead singer in the hall outside for about 20 minutes after the concert. Great guy!

I've been a fan of Jars since I was a kid. My dad actually played cello on many of their albums, so he's known those guys for years and years, and he has always spoken so highly of them. I didn't have the chance to meet them until a few years ago when they performed at my college (Pepperdine University, 2006). It was a fantastic concert, and I really enjoyed chatting with them after the show. I'm glad to know they love good coffee!

Nashville is my home town, although I haven't been back in almost a year. I've actually been planning a short visit this summer, centered around visiting family and checking out Crema (the place mentioned in the interview.) Glad to know it's getting good reviews! I can't wait to check it out.

sorry to rain on the parade, but not my kind of music. and in reading the interview, i didn't see anything to justify the "coffeegeeks" title. i do think it's an overall good idea trying to branch out into interviews with musicians / celebrities to try to promote specialty coffee -- and i think the previous interview with a rockstar was worthy of geekdom -- but this one missed the mark for me. i know it may be hard just getting these types of interviews, but if the results of the interviews are like this, i say don't even post them.

example: i heard in a recent audio interview that buzz osborne of the melvins loves coffee. and yet while i consider him a groundbreaking musician and the melvins one of my favorite bands, i wouldn't want to see an interview with him posted here unless his coffee knowledge was equally in tune.

harry.

"i should pull up the hardwood to see if there's carpet underneath! . . . no, that's never the case."

Fair enough comments, but I highlighted the above because I think that's probably the main reason why you didn't like this interview so much - here's why.

Even though Charlie didn't drop info about owning a Vivaldi II, or pouring latte art, or dropping buzzword cafes like Intelligentsia or Stumptown like Steve Page did, the fact is, he's in a band that is wildly popular (and a three time Grammy Award winning band), and he likes good coffee. Sure he's not at the level of coffeegeekism that you or others on CG might be at, but for many of the band's fans, just reading that there's this connection between one of their passions (coffee) outside of the music is what makes this a popular interview with most.

I know if you took one or more of my favourite bands / artists and interviewed them on coffee and they were talking about chains and enjoying espresso and liking the culture of the cafe, I'd be geeking out regardless of the lack of mention of PIDing their own machine, etc.

Okay, so it would be easy enough for me to come on here and say why I think this interview is cool, simply because they are a band I really enjoy listening to, there is much more to this than my musical preference. My definition of a coffeegeek would one who seeks out really good coffee, and ways to create it. Whether that be espresso or coffee. And in this interview, that definition is met. The fact that they go out of their way to seek small, independent shops flies in the face of all the other bands you see walking around with $tarbucks cups. The fact that their favorite coffeehouse is a really cool independent coffeehouse that is now serving the fine coffee of Topeca meets that definition. The fact that they not only think about the farmers when they drink the coffee, but are ACTIVELY working to do something about it through Blood:Water, makes them worthy of that title.

Now, I can see how the "drinking Starbucks on the bus" comment was a little disallusioning, at least it was to me, it's probably done out of sheer convenience, which I don't say I agree with. I will be giving him an AeroPress when I see him this weekend, and some good coffee, so hopefully we can help a little with that. But, it's good to see we are all at different levels of our "geekdom." One doesn't have to know what a Chemex is to be a geek, or how to use a naked portafilter. Again, I wasn't there when I joined this site in 2004, but we all start somewhere, and these fine guys are well on their way. Plus, it's always good to see how important indie shops are to the lives of many people, musicians at this level included. Nashville has a good circle of independent coffeeshops (CREMA, Ugly Mugs, Bongo Java, just to name a couple,) but I still know musicians that think the green monster is the cat's meow. So, points taken, but I think it's still a worthy interview, whether I wrote it or not. (Plus it gives us an insight as to how people like that view our niche industry.)

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